Letter: Not my kind of circus

The Garden Bros. Circus is coming to Lima on Wednesday. The show features among other acts, elephants and camels. Cities have canceled Garden Bros. who have many aliases, or barred it from performing with animals because they have criminal charges for animal cruelty, lawsuits and many customer complaints. According to the Florida BBB, they have an “F” rating for dealings with tickets.

Everybody loves the circus including me, but without the animals who tend to be abused in this type of environment.

The Ringling Bros stopped using elephants in 2018 because of public outcry for the treatment and emotional damage done to them. Elephants are social beings with close-knit family units. The ones kept in zoos or circuses show symptoms of depression, aggression or PTSD because of the isolation, confinement and abuse.

I was disappointed to read that Lima planned to host this circus without regard for the company’s atrocious record of abuse and neglect. Please know that purchasing a ticket to a venue that exploits animals, supports the animals’ misery. It is a kind of living death for animals especially elephants who are socially developed and dependent as they are.

I implore the elected officials of Lima to please require performances of this circus to perform WITHOUT the exploitation of elephants. For more information on Garden Bros https://secure.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/GardenBrosCircus